As wolf hunt opens, 32 kills registered first day

Minnesota wolf hunters registered 32 wolves Saturday in the first day of the inaugural wolf season. That's with 3,600 licensed hunters. The early-season quota is 200.

Sixteen were registered in the northeast zone, twelve in the northwest and four in the east-central zone.

Hunters who bagged a wolf on Saturday had until 10 p.m.to register it.

The tally was well below the quota for two of the three wolf zones. Hunters bagged four wolves in the east-central zone, which has a quota of just nine wolves. In the northeast, the quota is 58 and in the northwest it's 133.

Meanwhile, I spent five hours Saturday with a DNR conservation officer driving backroads in the Ely-Tower area. Officer Dan Starr checked about a dozen hunters, but none had shot a deer or a wolf. In fact, none of the hunters he checked had wolf licenses.

"The deer aren't moving today because it's so nice out,'' Stark said. "And when deer move, the wolves move. I think there'll be more activity in the next few days.''

We'll see what Day Two brings on Sunday.

Even if the fish aren’t biting, the ducks aren’t flying and the pheasants aren’t flushing, Doug Smith says any day spent outdoors is a good day. A Minnesota native, he’s been covering the outdoors for the Star Tribune since 1995. He considers walleyes fried over a campfire to be gourmet cuisine.